Vapor electric apparatus.



( O. KRUH.

VAPOR ELEGTRIG APPARATUS; APPLICATION FILED AUG. 7, 1905. RENEWED JAN. 31, 1908.

Patented Mar. 31, 1914.

W/tnesses: 5 Wye/76w" w zr/z a 05/45 0 ffruh WJ flc 55/ MM Atty UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OSIAS O. OF SGHENECTADY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC I COMPANY,A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

VAPOR ELECTRIC APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 7, 1905, Serial No. 273,021. Renewed January 31, 1908. Serial No. 413,611.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I,'OSIAS O. Kenn, a subject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing. at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vapor Electric Apparatus, ofwhich the following is a specification. A

In the operation of vapor electric devices having a cathode, usually of mercury, and a plurality of anodes, such for-example as rectifiers, alternating current lamps, or the like, there frequently occurs during operation, a certain amount of arcing or discharge between the anodes. When this phenomenon occurs it signifies that one of the anodes, or at least a .point on one of the anodes, has for the time being become the cathode of a discharge therefrom to another anode. One of the most frequent causes of such discharges is due to the impact of a falling globule of mercury against the hot surfaces of an anode. The point of impact immediately becomes the seat of a discharge therefrom to another anode. This discharge may be so small as to have no immediate deleterious effeet, while in other instances it may have such magnitude as seriously to impair the vacuum and perhaps otherwise seriously damage the apparatus. In order to prevent such arcing between anodes I provide shields or guards so arranged as to protect the anodes from flying particles of mercury. Inasmuch as these particles or globules of mercury may be due either to the falling of the mercury in the evacuated tube or to splashing or spattering of mercury from the mercury cathode usually at the bottom of the apparatus, I have so arranged these shields or guards asto protect the anodes from falling globules of condensed mercury and from particles projected from the oathode surface as the arc wanders erratically thereover or as drops fall into the cathode from the upper portions of the tube. The

shields which I employ may consist of barriers of glass or metal, either perforated or imperforate, or they may consist for example of fairly small mesh wire gauze.

The features of novelty which characterize my invention I have pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.

, The invention itself will be better understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawlngs in which Figure 1 represents one embodiment of rectifying single phase alternating current. V

The figures of the drawing represent the tubes only since the system of connections.

by which these tubes are operated are already well understood in the art, and formno portion of my present invention.

-Referringrparticularly to Fig. 1, the exhausted tube or envelop of the rectifier is indicated at 1. This of course may assume any one of numerous different shapes. In the particular form shown, however, the tube consists of a somewhat oval main portion having an upward extension 2 serving mainly as a condensing chamber, While at the'bottom it is provided with two depend ing tubular sections 3 and 4 each nearly filled with a body of mercury at 5 and 6 constituting electrodes. The usual leadingin conductors 7 and 8 serve to make elec trical connection with these electrodes. The electrode 5 serves as the main negative electrode or cathode of the apparatus, while the small electrode 6 situated at the right serves in a now well understood manner as an auxiliary starting electrode.

The main anodes or positive electrodes of the apparatus in the present instance consist of hollow cylinders 9 and 10 of artificial graphite, supported by conductor leads 11 and 12 passing up through the condensing chamber 2 and connected respectively with leading-in wires 13 and 14. The conductor leads 11 and 12 are protected by glass tubes 15 and 16 which surround them and extend down to and flare over the tops of the corresponding electrodes as indicated at .17 and 18. The flared portions of these tubes thus serve largely to protect the electrodes from impact with globules of mercury condensed in portions of the envelop lying above the electrode, as for example in the condensing chamber 2, which globules of mercury as they fall would be apt to hit one or the other of the anodes. As a further precaution, however, I surround the anodes with cylindrical shields as at 19 and 20. These shields are shown as broken away so as the better to expose the anodes to view. It will be understood however that the anodes are surrounded by the shields. These shields may be held in place by any suitable mecylinders are closedby end pieces 93 and 24.

These end pieces may like the cylinders themselves, be formed of wire gauze, though I prefer to form them of some impervious material such as glass or metal. In the lat ter case the cylinder ends are held mechanically in place by slightly bending over the lower edges of the wire gauze. The anodes, by the presence of these end disks are thus effectually prevented from being struck by splashes of mercury from the cathode 5, or from the lower walls of the envelop 1, as drops of mercury fall thereon from the up per portion of the envelop.

A modified arrangement of shields or guards for the anodes is shown in Fig. 2. In this case the rectifier tube is provided with a main body portion 25 serving largely as a condensing chamber, and with two laterally extending chambers 26 and 2? in which the main anodes 28 and are located. These 'anode chambers are slightly inclined so that any mercury which may condense -therein will flow out into the main chamber and back to the bodies of mercury 30 and 31 contained in the lower portion of the envelop and constituting, in the case of the electrode 30 the main cathode, and in the case of the electrode 31, the starting anode of the apparatus.

In order to protect the main anodes 28 and- 29 from drops or splashes of mercury while the apparatus is in operation, I coverthe openings from the main chamber of the apparatus into the anode chambers with snit- This disk 38 serves to tion, and thus prevents them from making impact with either of the anodes. The protection thus afforded to the anodes thus largely eliminates the objectionable arcingabove referred to.

The invention disclosed in this applica tion is covered broadly by my prior Patent #1,08G,185, filed February 3rd, 1914.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is,

1. The combination of an evacuated envelop or receptacle, a vaporizable electrode therein serving as a cathode, a plurality of anodes. therein, and metallic shields each with numerous perforations between said vaporizable electrode and said anodes.

2. The combination of an evacuated envelop or receptacle, a vaporizable electrode therein, a cooperating solid electrode, anda sieve like shield interposed between the electrodes.

3. The combination of a receptacle, a solid electrode, and a wire shield for protecting said electrode.

4:. In a vapor electric apparatus, the com bination of anelectrode, and a shield therefor having a plurality of openings therein.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 4th day of August, 1905.

OSIAS O. KRUI-I.

Witnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL, HELENA SHmLDs. 

